Location: Best-seller for Ramada Downtown

Ramada Downtown Dubai’s new General Manager Shahzad Butt sat down with TRAVTALK property to discuss the new strategic plan to stimulate a higher volume of business. after his first quarter in the

Taking over the property during the Ramadan period, Butt was able to put across a new strategic plan to attract more visitors to Ramada Downtown. A few weeks later, the Dubai Opera opened just adjacent to the property which provided him additional strength to market the property. Location is a key aspect which has continued to attract visitors to Ramada Downtown Dubai.

Among their leading markets are Saudi (KSA), GCC nationals and the expatriates in the Emirates as well. Staycations this year has been a very good crowd puller for all properties in the emirates. Most leisure and business visitors prefer to stay at a place which is conveniently located to a range of different activities which would also include shopping. Butt ensured that all the business revolving around the area would be secured by offering good deals for the agents to increase their occupancy level and keep their ADRs high too.

“When I joined in, it was a slow month therefore I got my team together and drew up a new marketing strategy to target new markets and improve the occupancy and ADR. It was an exciting three months as now we are reaping the benefits of our exercise. Location plays a pivotal role for Ramada Downtown and I must add that we cash in on it. Having a good product in this strategic location at the correct time gave us the strength we need to attract more visitors to the property.

I think it worked very well; the whole team put an effort to bring in business during these three months and that has been the mission and we have been able to successfully achieve the benefits. Now we are little ahead in the race, as people are calling us, they are chasing our deal to see what we are doing. I think that was quite exciting and challenging period these past three months. To set the business right, we at Ramada Downtown are able to raise the occupancy level, we are able to raise our ADR because sometimes you have to give cheaper rooms at the lowest price. In our case we didn’t need to adjust as our location was enough to bring in a good volume of business quite well and the product obviously which is very good in terms of people have stayed, people are happy so that has worked very well. So it has been three months of very, very busy to sort out our business from that point of view.”

Having a good product in this strategic location at the correct time gave us the strength we need to attract more visitors to the property. I think it worked very well; the whole team put an effort to bring in business during these three months and that has been the mission and we have been able to successfully achieve the benefits. Shahzad Butt General Manager Ramada Downtown Dubai